St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1887-04-14
A NIGHT WITH STANTON.
Judge Poland Tells the Story of n Night
with the War Secretary.
Letter to the Omaha Republican.

Letter to the Omaha Republican.
To the Editor of The Republican
Somebody sent me one of your
mammoth numbers of March 18th. In
letter from Washington contained in
it, | read the following:
The last number of the Washington
Gazette contains a we'll engraved like
ness of Gov. John NJ. Thryer, who was
very popular here during his Senate
rial career. He was an intimate friend
of Secretary Stanton, and on the night
when President Johnson contemplated
having Stanton elected from the war
department by the marines, Senator
Thayer remained with the secretary,
and would doubtless have given some
hard knocks had the marines made
their appearance.
The above is all true enough, but it
gives but little of the events of that
somewhat memorable night, and as |
was one of those "whO were there" it
occurred to me that some of the details
might interest your readers.
In the afternoon of that day Presi-
dent Johnson sent to the senate the
name of General Lorenzo Thomas as
secretary of war, ad interim, to super
sede Secretary Stanton. This caused
great excitement, and the senate i'm
mediately went into executive session
and remained in session till near mid
night. 1t was during this session that
Mr.. Sumner sent his famous message
to Stanton "tO stick" The late Gener-
al James MOrehead was then the rep
resentative from the Pittsburg district,
and both he and myself lived at Mrs.
Carriers famous old boarding house on
Capitol Hill.
That night Speaker ColfaX held the
last of his public receptions for that
session, and as neither General More
head or myself had attended any of his
previous receptions, we decided to go
to this, but go quite early and to come
away before the crowd became great.
COlfax then lived on the north side of
Lafayette Square, and quite near the
war department. General MOrehead
and myself were first arrivals at the
speakers reception, and we were then
informed by COlfax that Stanton was
apprehensive of an attempt to take
fOrcible possession of the war depart
ment, and thus put General Thomas
in actual possession of the office, and
that Stanton was at the war depart
ment and intended to remain during
the night. Mr.. Stanton had resided at
Pittsburgh for some period, and he and
Gen. MOrehead were very warm per-
sOnal friends, and the relations be-
tween the secretary and myself were
quite intimate and cordial. We at
once took leave of Speaker Colfax and
went directly to the war department,
where we found Mr.. Stanton alone, ex-
cept few clerks scattered about i'll
the rooms near. | have met many PEG
pie who seemed pleased to meet me,
but | do not recOllect any occasion
when the pleasure seemed greater or
the greeting warmer than we received,
and especially when we announced
that we had come "tO stay" 1t was
not long before others (mainly MEM
bers of cOngress) began to gather, and
on the adjournment of the senate there
came quite reinforce of senators.
OF course the "situatiOn" was the
theme of discussion, and what could
be done, or what should be done, was
presented with all the varying views,
such as a body of men would enter
tain when in high state of excite
ment. Dakota had for delegate at
this time, a DR.. Burleigh, who was
fuller of fun and mischief than any 9TH
er man it has been my fortune to know.
This DR.. Burleigh had, in some way,
got hold of General Thomas at one of
the Washington hotels, and strength
ened his courage with few glasses so
that Thomas was declaring stOutly
that he would go with armed force and
GUST Stanton from the war department.
Dr Rnrlainh Of oOnrSo UaS aHp,,itlxy
Thomas in his valiant res
OlutiOns and declarations.
Constant reports of these threats by
Thomas were sent to us at the war de-
partment, and formed another element
in our discussions. 1t was finally pro
posed by some one, (but l do not re-
started against Gen. Thomas, under
the recently enacted "tenure of Office of
law" This met with general favor,
and | was selected, as perhaps us han
dy a lawyer as any of the company, to
draw the complaint and warrant. This
[ proceeded To do as well as | could
under the circumstances. Mr.. Stanton
signed the complaint as complainant, !
ter of the district court, who was one
was signed by Judge Carter
Before leaving the night at the war
department | must not forget an act of
patriotism that added much to our
and, perhaps, to our courage,
though the latter was not heavily tax
ed. Among others present was the |
late Hon. Samuel Hooper, of Massa-
chusetts, commonly called "Uncle Sam
Hooper" He gave the best dinners in
and was reputed to have
the best larder and other supplies. He
went home with his carriage, and re-
SO laden that no garrison was
aver better prepared to support a
siege.
A considerable number of US remain
I'd with Mr.. Stanton through the night
md in the morning Gen. Thomas was
on the warrant signed by
Judge Carter, and all threatening to
AXE possession of the war department
~ force, ended. On being brought